ISRO to send crewless Gaganyaan mission in December

Bengaluru: The Indian Space Research Organisation is racing against time to launch the first uncrewed mission in December, as part of the human spaceflight programme 'Gaganyaan', due to the adverse impact of the Covid-19-induced lockdowns that has disrupted hardware delivery schedules.

As part of the mandate of Gaganyaan, two uncrewed flights are planned to test the end-to-end capacity for the manned mission. Officials of the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said the first and second waves of the pandemic have "severely affected" the Gaganyaan programme.

Hardware elements for the mission are fabricated by the industry, and lockdowns in different parts of the country at different period have adversely impacted delivery schedules. "Design, analysis and documentation are done by ISRO while hardware for Gaganyaan is fabricated and supplied by hundreds of industries across the country", an ISRO official said.

The objective of the Gaganyaan programme is to demonstrate the capability to send humans to low earth orbit on board an Indian launch vehicle and bring them back to earth safely.

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Space, Jitendra Singh said in February this year that the first unmanned mission is planned in December 2021 and the second unmanned one in 2022-23, followed by the human spaceflight demonstration. Four Indian astronaut-candidates have already undergone generic space flight training in Russia as part of the Gaganyaan programme.

ISRO's heavy-lift launcher GSLV Mk III has been identified for the mission. Formal announcement of the Gaganyaan programme was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address on August 15, 2018.

The initial target was to launch the human spaceflight before the 75th anniversary of India's independence on August 15, 2022. "Most of our industry (that supplied hardware for the programme) were closed (due to COVID-induced lockdowns)", an ISRO official said.